An exploration of the differential effects of parents\u2019 authoritarianism dimensions on pre-school children\u2019s epistemic, existential, and relational needs.

Research on adult populations has widely investigated the deep differences that characterize individuals who embrace either conservative or liberal views of the world. More recently, research has started to investigate these differences at very early stages of life. One major goal is to explore how parental political ideology may influence children's characteristics that are known to be associated to different ideological positions. In the present work, we further investigate the relations between parents' ideology and children cognitive processing strategies within the framework of political ideology as motivated social cognition (Jost et al., 2003) and the dual process model of political ideology (Duckitt et al., 2002). Specifically, epistemic (implicit attitudes toward order vs. chaos), existential (negativity and threat bias), and relational needs (conformity measure) were assessed in pre-school children (N = 106; 4-6 years). For each child at least one parent completed both the Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) and the Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) measures. Interestingly, results indicated that mothers' and fathers' responses had unique associations with children's socio-cognitive motivations, and different findings emerged in relation to the two facets of parental authoritarianism, namely dominance (i.e., SDO) and submission (i.e., RWA). More specifically, children's existential needs appeared to be more related to mothers' RWA scores, whereas children's epistemic needs appeared to be more related to fathers' SDO. Finally, parents' RWA and SDO scores appeared to have opposite effects on children's relational needs: children's conformity increased at increasing levels of mothers' RWA and decreased at increasing levels of fathers' SDO. Overall, however, results were relatively weak and several links between the responses of parents and their children were not significant, suggesting caution in drawing strong conclusions about the impact of parents' ideology. Limitations and future developments will be discussed

Transition After the Technical Professional Degree in Southern Switzerland

AbstractIn the area of Cantone Ticino (CH), lots of students obtain a degree in upper secondary technical-professional education (MPT) every year; for them, a number of different options exists.Research questions have been formulated as follows:-Which paths do young students from Ticino undertake after technical-professional degree?-Which are the most relevant influencing factors and motivations in students’ decision making process?The purpose of the study is identifying and understanding itineraries, motivations and influencing factors of young Italian- speaking Suisse students with an MPT degree in the process of choice.Preliminary interviews with clients and analysis of statistical data have been conducted. Subsequently, 83 face-to-face semi- structured interviews have been administered to students and adults. Students have been asked about their education, choices, advices and counselling; adults have been asked about their perspective on students’ decision making process. Data have been treated according to the principle of triangulation (Denzin, 1970).Interviews showed different motivations for those students who decide to continue studying in a tertiary education institution: while some are guided by specific projection on their own future, others make a choice under the pressure of automatism and inertia. A second issue involved in the decision making process, is whether to stay in the region of origin or to leave.Self-representation, representation of the experience and the weight of socio-cultural aspects, play a crucial role in the decision making process A relevant role is taken by informal networks and word of mouth, confirming the hypothesis that, beyond choice rationality, interpersonal relationships and informal ties define the direction of the choice

The Automatic Conservative: Ideology-Based Attentional Asymmetries in the Processing of Valenced Information

Research has widely explored the differences between conservatives and liberals, and it has been also recently demonstrated that conservatives display different reactions toward valenced stimuli. However, previous studies have not yet fully illuminated the cognitive underpinnings of these differences. In the current work, we argued that political ideology is related to selective attention processes, so that negative stimuli are more likely to automatically grab the attention of conservatives as compared to liberals. In Experiment 1, we demonstrated that negative (vs. positive) information impaired the performance of conservatives, more than liberals, in an Emotional Stroop Task. This finding was confirmed in Experiment 2 and in Experiment 3 employing a Dot-Probe Task, demonstrating that threatening stimuli were more likely to attract the attention of conservatives. Overall, results support the conclusion that people embracing conservative views of the world display an automatic selective attention for negative stimuli

The effects of perceived competence and sociability on electoral outcomes

Previous research demonstrated that inferences of competence from the face are good predictors of electoral outcomes (Todorov et al., 2005). In the current work we examined the role of another key dimension in social perception, namely perceived sociability. Results showed that people considered both competence and sociability, as inferred from the face, as related to higher chances of winning the elections. A different pattern emerged in relation to the actual electoral outcomes. Indeed, perceived competence was related to higher chances of winning, whereas perceived sociability was negatively related to electoral success. It is thus shown that these two fundamental dimensions in social perception exert opposite effects on voting behaviors

Adverse Events Related to Vaccination (VAEs): How to Manage the Further Doses of Immunization and Parents’ Hesitancy

This study supports the evidence that after vaccine‐related reactions, it is still possible to carry out the immunization protocol

Parenting motives: Validation of the Italian version of the parental care and tenderness scale

Relevant individual differences can be observed in relation to parenting motives. The Parental Care and Tenderness (PCAT) scale is an important tool aimed at assessing them. We here investigated the psychometric properties of an Italian version of the scale (N = 946). The scale had a very high reliability and its internal structure closely reproduced the one obtained in different cultural contexts. Two major subscales, namely nurturance and protection, could be identified. In addition, we explored the validity of the scale in relation to a novel domain. Individual differences in parenting motivations, and more specifically those related to nurturance, emerged to be associated with a spontaneous behavioral tendency to approach children. Scores in the PCAT, and more specifically scores in the protection subscale, were also associated with a more conservative political orientation. The present work contributes to the growing literature about the key role of parenting motives in affecting social behaviors

FELINE LEISHMANIASIS: SEROLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR DETECTION OF AN EMERGENT DISEASE IN A NON-ENDEMIC AREA OF NORTHERN ITALY

In recent decades feline leishmaniosis (FeL) has become an emerging disease, also in non-endemic areas for the canine infection. This study updates the epidemiological status for FeL in cats in northern Italy and compares results with previous studies of the same feline population. Co-infections with feline retroviruses FIV and Field were also investigated. Stray, shelter and owned cats from different cities in the Lombardy region of northern Italy, were prospectively randomly sampled between January 2020 and May 2021. A total of 255 cats were tested for L. infantum: 240/255 for antibodies by IFAT and 234/255 and 198/255 for Leishmania DNA by PCR on whole blood and lymph nodes, respectively. Rapid ELISA test was used to detect FIV or FeLV infection. Overall, 26/255 (10.2%) cats tested positive for L. infantum: in 8/26 cats Leishmania DNA was found in popliteal lymph nodes (Leishmania/ml range from 15 to 60), 6/26 were PCR positive on whole blood (Leishmania/ml range from 5 to 80) and 15/26 IFAT seropositive at titers ranging from 1:80 to 1:320. Two Leishmania infected cats were also FIV+FeLV coinfected, another was FIV positive and one was FeLV positive. A high prevalence of FeL was found in a non-endemic area of northern Italy, with an increasing trend in infection rates

L’evoluzione degli atteggiamenti verso la matematica e il suo insegnamento degli insegnanti di scuola elementare in formazione iniziale

Il percorso formativo come docenti di scuola elementare in didattica della matematica può essere fortemente influenzato da fattori di natura affettiva, che, a loro volta, risultano spesso legati ad esperienze scolastiche negative vissute con la matematica. Il progetto di ricerca-azione qui descritto ha approfondito proprio questo fenomeno, focalizzandosi sui futuri docenti di scuola elementare del Canton Ticino, con un duplice obiettivo: da un lato, progettare e implementare efficaci pratiche formative per lo svilup- po di atteggiamenti positivi verso la matematica e il suo insegnamento; dall’altro, studiare l’evoluzione di tali atteggiamenti nell’arco dei primi due anni della formazione. Sono stati sviluppati specifici interventi didattici e strumenti di osservazione che hanno permesso di rilevare e monitorare gli atteggiamenti degli studenti e di analizzare quali dimensioni – disposizione emozionale, senso di autoefficacia, visione della disciplina (Di Martino & Zan, 2011) – sono state più o meno influenti sul cambiamento di atteggiamento, e su quali componenti quindi la formazione può cercare di intervenire in modo più incisivo ed efficace

Maternal HIV status and infant feeding practices among Ugandan women

practices, a questionnaire was administered to women attending the follow-up clinics for child vaccination. Among the mothers who were still breastfeeding at the time of interview (N=838), 61.4% of the HIV-infected women had planned to breastfeed for a maximum of 6 months, compared with 12.1% of the HIV-uninfected women (p<0.001). Among the women who were not breastfeeding at the time of interview (N=108), 82.5% of the HIV-infected women had stopped breastfeeding within 3 months, compared with 23.5% of the HIV-uninfected women (p<0.001). Only 2.1% of HIV-infected women seen up to 14 weeks postnatally practised mixed feeding, compared with 23.6% of HIV-uninfected women (p<0.001). After 6 months, however, 30% of the HIV-infected women and 55% of the HIV-uninfected mothers were using mixed feeding, with no significant differences. Programmes for the prevention of motherto-child transmission of HIV should re-enforce counselling activities to address the issue of early weaning by HIV-infected women, and to support safe breastfeeding up to 6 months